Knightdale is a town in Wake County, North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, Knightdale has a population of 19,435.
The story of Knightdale starts with exploration and discovery. The community, which goes beyond today’s boundaries, has a history that dates back to the colonial era in America (Read More).
Situated about 20 miles from my home to the north, the drive to Knightdale was pleasant from my perspective, maybe not so much for the cars stuck behind me. You see, I’m something of a speed limit zealot.
With Fall in full swing there was plenty to see. While the oaks were already bare, there were several other breeds including the odd maple that were full ablaze in orange and red.
The road conditions, however, were not great. More than once I had to navigate around busted up pavement edges and potholes.
In town, train tracks ran down the center and roads ran alongside with crossings spread far apart. I initially drove around and snapped shots of local shops, then I stopped by the local Goodwill and browsed their stock.
One of my personal rules for these trips is that I don’t bring any money. I’m just their to observe and record my surroundings.
My mother and I visited the local Treasure Hunt store in Raleigh to see what was available. We went on a Wednesday, the $1 day before they restocked the bins. We got some interesting items, mostly arts and crafts stuff.
I picked up a DeWalt Carbon Fiber Hammer Tacker-Stapler, it was in rough shape but I think it still works. I also got a MeshForce WiFi Extender. The little light comes on when you plug it in so I think it works.
Both items were scuffed up a bit, but I think I’ll be able to sell them.
We went back to the store on Friday to see the new items priced at $12 each.
The store was packed with people. We arrived around 11 AM and noticed a few electronic items I was interested in but decided not to take any chances.
All of these items are product returns and only some of the boxes say whether the contents were defective or broken.
I found a great deal though in the clothing bins. Apparel items were all $8 on Friday and I picked up 13 men’s Levi’s shirts for $104 total. The listed MSRP on the shirts was $68.50 and clearance stickers were marking most of them down up to 70%.
The tags all say 2024, so these shirts were all recently released. I checked Levi’s website and I can see that they are still listed at around $45 on a discount.
They came in good sizes ranging from 2XL all the way up to 4XLT. I’ve listed them on eBay at $34.95 each. I am hoping they will get picked up as we roll through Q4.
Unfortunately, one of the shirts was missing the tag and another one had an ink tag still attached to it. I need a strong magnet to remove it without setting off the ink bomb.
Other strategies included burning them off, but I think that risks damaging the fabric. I’ll set those two aside for later.
Queuing in the checkout line.
I’ve had 8 buyers this last week with gross sales of $145 and a net return of $47.03 after fees and cost of goods. My experiment with disabling promoted listings last month was a big failure.
So, I am now always enabling promotions on my listings. It’s not worth trying to go without to save some money. I’ll have to bring down my costs by either sticking to the $2 bins at the Goodwill or by focusing on only selling New With Tag items that I can charge higher prices for.
I am lucky in that the local Goodwill shops do not individually price items on the rack. All shirts and pants have a set price and everything in the bins is two bucks. Sweaters and coats get higher prices, but not a whole lot more unless it is a big heavy ski jacket or something similar.
I’ll see if I can get my spreadsheet uploaded in the coming weeks to give a bit more transparency on how much I am earning and spending with this venture.
A week or so ago I wrote about restarting my online sales accounts. I opened Poshmark and Vinted accounts and I also refreshed my eBay account which was just sitting idle.
I got my first sale on Poshmark after a day or so and took that as a good sign.
I sold a V-style Tiger Woods golf polo for $20 on an offer. I probably could have gotten more for it due to its rarity.
Unfortunately that was my only sale on the Poshmark platform. I also had no sales on Vinted. I gave up on Vinted and I am slowly removing my listing on Poshmark as well.
What has been working for me is eBay.
I have made 5 sales on eBay since my reselling article was posted. I sold 2 Patagonia Fleece vests and a Fleece jacket, a mint condition 2015 Pokémon shirt, and a Nike swim rash guard.
The golf polo shirts I bought have not sold at all and I regret buying them so close to the end of the season. I have had better luck with cold weather sales.
I am keeping a record of my inventory and sales in Excel. I am not using custom SKUs for my inventory system at the moment.
I did use the Promoted Listing option on a few items but I have tried to keep the percentage amount low so as to keep as much of the selling price as possible.
I have noticed that when listed an item for sale, the item weight is often set too high. Most clothing is listed as 1-2 pounds by default but actually these items are 6-14 ounces at most. So I have been weighing and pricing items individually to offer the best shipping prices possible.
I think this is my biggest complaint with Vinted. The shipping on that platform is only charged to the buyer which simplifies selling, bit the prices and method were far to expensive to buyers. Even when cheaper option were possible with the same time in transit.
My issue with Poshmark is that it is mostly a sellers platform. When you make an account it automatically follows over a hundred other accounts by default. This is just fake traffic.
Every day I get 10-20 followers added to my account and they are all either other sellers or bots. It is a very chaotic place where you are forced to repeatedly share your items in order to get seen.
The search functionality is very limited. I tried searching fir specific items and browsing in general and had little success navigating the app.
The few items I gave a Like to resulted in a flood of messages with offers to sell. Desperate and beggarly-like.
I think if I was going to try and sell with Poshmark I would setup a separate website with my listed inventory and then link to the sales page on Poshmark.
I have zero faith in Poshmark’s own platform or its design. It looks like it was made by a social media junkie going through withdrawal.
Anyways, I will be focusing my reselling efforts on eBay going forward.
I did spend a bit much on inventory initially, so for the moment I am keeping a tight grip on my wallet as I try to work my ways to a profit.
I will post again on my success or (failure) soon enough. Thank you.
Fat Wallet Refugee 